And here is THE BEST COOKIE IN THE WORLD

Seriously. Even though there’s no chocolate, which I know seems like it’d take a cookie right out of the running. Even so, seriously, you have to try this cookie! I really think it’s a springtime cookie, but hey, try it out at Christmas, I don’t think anybody will complain!

I modified this recipe heavily, but the idea is based on a cookie from tigersandstrawberries.com — Barbara is an amazing cook.

Beat butter and sugar three minutes. Beat in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

If you think that this method is much more like you are making a butter cake than a cookie, you are right! These are the most cake-like cookies you can possibly make. They work perfectly with the filling, believe me.

Now, you can drop the cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheets, but I STRONGLY SUGGEST piping the dough, which is MUCH faster and easier and gives you a lot more control over the size of the cookies, plue ensures they come out round. Make ’em small, like a tsp each.

Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes, until just barely brown around edges — you don’t want to overbake them.

Now combine the filling ingredients. Pipe the filling on half the cookies and top with the other half to make sandwich cookies.

These freeze beautifully, but because the cookies are so soft, you will find they stick to each other. Put waxed paper between layers.

If you have filling left over, ice cupcakes with it. In fact, if you make twice the filling, you’ll have enough to ice a whole layer cake! Mmmm.

When I was depressed last year after losing Adora’s only puppy from her first litter? These are the cookies I made. Then I sat down and read THE HUNGER GAMES and ate all the cookies. (Well, not all, but lots of them.) So that’s my prescription if you need a comforting evening after a hard couple of weeks: a really good dystopian story and a lot of really good cookies.

Extra note here: Adora’s two puppies this time around are doing great! Which does not stop me from eating cookies, but means I’m less inclined to eat them all myself.

I’m saving all the cookie recipes to try over time. Although I’ll switch the walnuts in walnut horns to pecans. I don’t like walnuts – flavor or the way they make my teeth feel. did you notice there’s a ‘cream cheese theme’? Seems like over half the recipes call for cream cheese, which is not an ingredient I normally use in my cookies. I must remember to put it on the shopping list.